Edward James Gibson Holland

He rescued his machine gun while enemy forces closed on him.

Edward James Gibson Holland protected a withdrawing column with a Colt machine gun during the South African War. Born in Ottawa on 2 February 1878, he joined the Canadian militia before volunteering for overseas service. He served as a sergeant with the Royal Canadian Dragoons.

On 7 November 1900 at Leliefontein, near the Komati River, Boer commandos pressed the column's rearguard. Holland placed his machine gun between two 12-pounder field guns and used close-range fire to delay the attackers. When escape with the gun carriage became impossible, he detached the weapon and rode away carrying it, denying its capture. His conduct helped save the artillery and earned one of three Victoria Crosses awarded to the regiment for that action.

After returning to Canada he received a commission in the militia. During the First World War he raised and commanded a motor machine-gun battery, taking his experience of mobile firepower to the Canadian Expeditionary Force in France.

Holland later lived in Cobalt, Ontario, where he died on 18 June 1948. His decorations entered the Royal Canadian Dragoons' collection. Canadian memorials and an Ottawa armoury bear his name, remembering a soldier whose best-known exploit joined controlled machine-gun fire with the determination to save his weapon.